Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkiye has become an ordinary European country when it comes to electric car and hybrid sales. In fact, it is the fourth largest market for EVs in geographical Europe, after France, Germany and the UK! Although it is a relatively wealthy G20 country by overall GDP, because of its large population of 87 million, its nominal per capita GDP is only about $18,000 per year, putting it below Romania and Greece. So it comes as a surprise that Turks are buying EVs at rates substantially higher than do Romanians or Greeks.
New car and light commercial vehicle purchases came to 1.37 million in 2025, according to Reuters. Some 17% of those, 190,000 units, were battery electric, says the Ember energy consultancy.
Another 27% of the Turkish new car market (295,000 units) consisted of hybrid vehicles, which operate on batteries until they run low and then switch to gasoline.
Reuters is saying that 44% of the new car market in Turkiye is now battery electric or plug-in hybrid! That is more than California, in which all electrified vehicles account for about 39% of new car sales now.
Purchases of gasoline cars in Turkiye fell last year to only 520,000 units, with 95,000 diesel vehicles sold. 283,904 light commercial vehicles were sold.
Part of the reason for the big increase in electrified vehicle sales is that Turkiye began in 2023 to manufacture its own EV, the Togg. Likewise, around that time Tesla entered the Turkish market, and the Chinese EV maker BYD offers 7 models in the Turkish market. Those are the three top-selling brands, and Togg acounts for about 20% of EV sales. Toyota, Nissa, Kia and Citroen are also players in the hybrid sector.
You will notice that I haven’t brought up any American EVs. Neither Ford nor Chevy seems to have much of a foothold in this new market in Turkiye, even though Ford actually has plants there and was an important player in the gasoline car sector. When we look at the burgeoning EV market in Turkiye we are looking at the post-American world.
Photo of traffic in Ankara by engin akyurt on Unsplash
Turkish government tax policy is also helping Togg sales in particular. Turkiye, unlike some Middle Eastern countries, does not produce much petroleum, and it has an energy import bill annually of between $60 billion and $70 bn. If it can produce electricity from wind, solar, hydro and battery, and then fuel EVs from renewables, it can slash that national expense, over 4% of its annual GDP.
Another reason to electrify transport is that petroleum imports are increasingly politically or militarily threatened. The US is putting enormous pressure on Turkiye to stop buying Russian petroleum. Even petroleum from Kazakhstan is now a chancy proposition, since Ukrainian drones are targeting it.
Not only is Turkiye increasingly turning to EVs or PHEVs but Togg has big plans to sell into the European market, where Turkish products receive favorable tariff treatment.
A post-American world, as Trump spikes US EV development, giving the future of the automobile industry away to China.
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